There is nothing like a stint overseas to give you some clarity about the pros and cons of running a business in Australia.

Andrew Day, a former Telstra executive best known for his years heading the telco’s directories business Sensis, has returned from seven years in Europe wide awake to the enormous opportunities Australia has in the region.

Day has swapped the structurally challenged environment of directories for the high-growth world of infrastructure asset management.

As chief executive of Hastings Funds Management, he oversees more than $8 billion worth of investments in airports, toll-roads, gas pipelines and other key national assets with the aim of delivering long-term returns to clients such as superannuation funds.

It is a relief after years working in what he says was effectively a distressed industry, but the return home to Melbourne has also armed him with some important lessons about the differences of doing business in Australia and Europe.

“When you leave a country, live somewhere else you see things more clearly," Day told The Australian Financial Review in his first sit-down interview since taking the Hastings job a year ago.

“Australia is a bit insular. We tend to think everything we do is right. We have to be careful as we step into Asia or anywhere else around the world to respect the differences that exist in those countries.

Despite this, Day is enthusiastic about Australia’s future. “Australia has opportunities Europe would die for," he says, referring to the nation’s proximity to its fast-growing neighbours and large Asian population.

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Day is a telco specialist who is now pleased he turned down a number of offers in the media sector when he was looking to return to Australia.

Faced with an industry with limited expansion opportunities, he instead moved to a sector which is in a high-growth phase after going through a rough patch of its own.

Day’s strategy at Hastings is to simplify the business and turn its back on the externally listed model which was favoured by Macquarie Bank before the global financial crisis brought demand for highly leveraged funds crashing down.

“The first thing I did when I came into the company was settle it down . . . and get to know what makes the business tick, especially as I was outside the industry," Day says.

Speaking to the Financial Review shortly after Melbourne’s racing season, an open and chatty Day joked he had little luck on the horses the day before.

He has, however, scored a number of wins since taking the reins at Hastings, which has $8.2 billion in assets under management and another $1.5 billion in capital it is looking to invest.

In July it won a $1.2 billion mandate to manage infrastructure assets for the UK’s RBS Group Pension Fund. This came shortly after Hastings made its first big investment in three years with a joint $2.3 billion deal to buy the long-term lease of the Sydney desalination plant through a partnership with Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

“I wanted to signal that Hastings was back in town, attracting the right funds, had the capital to spend, knew how to run a deal and had good government relationships," says Day, who is now eyeing other government privatisations such as the sale of Port Botany in Sydney.

He is also in the process of privatising the company’s two listed funds. Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund is being taken over by APA Group. Hastings’ other listed entity Australian Infrastructure Fund yesterday signed an agreement to sell assets to the Future Fund.

Twenty-year-old Hastings, which is majority owned by Westpac Banking Corp, is somewhat of a quiet achiever in the often volatile infrastructure arena. It has racked up consistent annual returns of 10-13 per cent over the last decade.

Hastings does not earn a transaction fee but generates income over a long-term period through capital gains. It is investing for investors like pension and superannuation funds with long-dated liabilities and it has the freedom to walk away from investments that do not match its criteria.

“Infrastructure is not the sexiest space in the world. We want consistency. We want to make sure there are no surprises. To some extent we have hidden our light under the bushel while everyone else has been out there saying look at me," Day says.

Day came into the job as what he calls a “non-fund manager" which is unusual in the business but part of a deliberate move by the board to install a leader with international and domestic commercial experience. Day, 58, is a former electrical engineer who worked at Telstra for 20 years and headed Sensis under then chief Ziggy Switkowksi.

The son of a postmaster who was moved around regional South Australia during his childhood, Day was educated and joined Telstra as a cadet engineer in Adelaide. Telstra put him through university and he worked for the telecoms group in Britain for several years before moving to Melbourne.

After climbing the ranks to eventually head Sensis, Day was keen for another stint offshore and left Telstra in 2005 to move to London where he headed European directories business Truvo. He took a loyal following of Telstra colleagues with him.

Day later moved to Babcock & Brown offshoot Eircom Holdings, where he was in charge of an operational shake-up of the Irish telecoms group. While the move had the full support of his interior designer wife Debra, it was not an easy move initially for his two sons.

“When the opportunity came up to go to Europe I thought why not? My family didn’t necessarily think why not. It is difficult at that age, I had two boys, 12 and 14, who were pretty settled but having gone there they thought it was fantastic."

Day says there are high expectations of Australian CEOs in Europe. You are expected to be frank and opinionated and not scared to change things.

He quickly learned it was a much more complicated market and it was vital to develop a deep respect for Europe’s history and different cultures, lessons which will hold him in good stead back home.

Day has enjoyed the transition from soccer back to AFL football and is enjoying the clean flavours of Australian-Asian fusion food.

He is also chairman of New Zealand’s Yellow Pages Group which was restructured last year as ownership was returned to its senior lenders.